protien skimmer.

[blackghost]

hi i was wondering if a protien skimmer would do any good in a freshwater aquarium setup?

[BlueTurquoise]

Apparently fresh water hasn't got enough density for the protien skimmer to work well. That was also what I was told when I enquired at an LFS.

If you find the answer, make sure you post it here as I also want to know the answer to that one!

Chong :thumbsup:

[blackghost]

Protein Skimmers are mechanical devices that are made to be used in Marine Aquariums, which contain saltwater with lots of salts. You can use a Protein Skimmer in a freshwater aquarium. The skimmer will not hurt the freshwater fish or degrade the water quality in a freshwater aquarium, and freshwater will not damage the Protein Skimmer.

But the Protein Skimmer will not do much to improve the quality of the water in a freshwater aquarium. So the short answer is that if you have a freshwater aquarium you do not need a Protein Skimmer. The rest of the information on this page is about what a Protein Skimmer does.

A Protein Skimmer removes large molecules from water. Proteins are very large molecules with very large numbers of atoms. Protein Skimmers originally got that name because they were thought to skim protein molecules from the aquarium water. Actually it is now known that Protein Skimmers also remove other stuff from the water too.

So the question is still open we can work upon what other stuff it removes.

[Mr. Limpet]

This topic comes up every couple of years. There was an article in TFH in the mid 80's that covered this in depth. It refered to a large Discus breeder who fed heavily with beef heart and had played around with one. The protein skimmer, aka. a foam defractionator, can work in fresh water, but is mostly impractical. The function of attaching the proteins to the foam and then being able to remove the foam is dependent on contact time. In a saltwater tank, the difference in surface tension allows for very small bubbles. These bubbles rise very slowly compared to the larger bubble in a fresh water tank. There are also many many more of them, due to their small size and the total surface area of all of these bubbles is much greater than those in a freah water application. By using a very tall cylinder and a high quality air stone, you can get one to function, however, you must have enough protein in the system to make it work. In saltwater applications, there are very few water changes. In a Discus application, the water changes remove any protein build up. If you had a no water change system, you might get one to work, but the cost of a custom 8 foot, clear cylinder and the air pump needed to drive it would be quite high. Water changes are a much easier solution. Hey, if you give it a try, let us know how it turns out. You could try using a 3 or 4 inch diameter PVC pipe, but you would not be able to see what was going on inside. Any way, sorry for the long winded post, just one of my favorite subjects. Paul.

[BlueTurquoise]

Thanks Mr Limpid and blackghost, great info!

Chong

[cobalt]

hi
The amount of protein soluable in fresh water is very small . this is due to the low electrical charge of water and high polarity of most proteins.
In saltwater due to the high ion concentration you have more protein dissolved in the water and that changes the properties of the water and can kill your corals and anemones. the phenomenon is known to biologists as
"salting in" and "salting out" we user it to isolate protein in medium.
Hence in fresh water it is nice but a waste of time.
If you want to be better on the protein matter you can put the overflow to the drain on the top of the water and that way skim some of the protein (not a lot for there is not a lot)to you sump of other wise filtration systems.
Cobalt

[arpanlib]

hey,
got a few marine tanks and discus.......

from experience, in short, the marine water cannot be chaged daily to control the waste build up. in FW the water can be changed daily to ensure the best water quality. so there is the difference of using or not using a protein skimmer.

hope this helps.

arpanlib

[blackghost]

so if some how we can manage to produce tiny air bubbles we can use skimmer in fresh water tank. But how?

[arpanlib]

hi,
if you soemhow manage to get the tiny bubbles (which i think is difficult and impossible) where will you get the dissolved organic matter to make the skimmer effective.

do you do water changes??? they will take away the organic matter, if there is, and in FW the buildup of organics and trace is not as rapid as in SW. it would take approx one year to build the same amount of foam in FW as you would have in 2 weeks in SW.

which strain discus have you got ???

arpanlib

[blackghost]

i'll send you photos as soon i take snaps, i dont know names of some of my discus but what i know
cobalt blue
blue diamond
red turqu

other three are unknown to me

[Mr. Limpet]

Cobalt, I appriciate (sp?) the info on the difference in salt and fresh water electrical characteristics. This was not covered in the article that I read. They did however report success in removing a thick foam with the 8 ft. tall cylinder. They reportedly used a wood (air stone). I have zero experience with saltwater tanks, are wood air diffusers used? Any way, good info all around. Thanks. Paul.

If you could find a (wood or other) air diffuser that would give the small bubbles to start with and use a compressed O2 bottle to power it, could be interesting. But of course, why not just do the water changes? Peace!

[blackghost]

Yes I have heard of wooden air stones rather seen pictures of them. They are costlier than normal air stones but last long.
But if I use co2 won’t it change my pH.